Method to detect and characterize contaminants in pipes and ducts with interactive tracers
First Claim
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1. A method for determining the location of a contaminant in a fluid flow system, comprising the steps of:
- (a) injecting a conservative tracer and a partitioning tracer into the flow system at a first location;
(b) advecting the tracers along the flow system at a first velocity to create an advection flow field;
(c) extracting the tracers at a second location in the flow system;
(d) introducing a perturbation to the advection flow field at a perturbation time by changing and then re-establishing the advection flow at a second velocity, which may be different than the first velocity, creating a unique change in the concentration of the partition tracer;
(e) extracting the partitioning tracer as a function of time relative to the perturbation time;
(f) measuring the concentration of the partitioning tracer as a function of the time; and
(g) determining the location of contamination from the time of arrival of the partitioning tracer relative to the perturbation time and the advection flow velocity.
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Abstract
A method and an apparatus for detecting, locating, and quantifying contamination in a fluid flow system like a pipe or duct. This characterization technique uses a conservative and one or more interactive tracers that are injected into the fluid flow system and then monitored at another location in the system. Detection, location, and quantification are accomplished by analysis of the characteristic features of measured curves of tracer concentration.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method for determining the location of a contaminant in a fluid flow system, comprising the steps of:
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(a) injecting a conservative tracer and a partitioning tracer into the flow system at a first location; (b) advecting the tracers along the flow system at a first velocity to create an advection flow field; (c) extracting the tracers at a second location in the flow system; (d) introducing a perturbation to the advection flow field at a perturbation time by changing and then re-establishing the advection flow at a second velocity, which may be different than the first velocity, creating a unique change in the concentration of the partition tracer; (e) extracting the partitioning tracer as a function of time relative to the perturbation time; (f) measuring the concentration of the partitioning tracer as a function of the time; and (g) determining the location of contamination from the time of arrival of the partitioning tracer relative to the perturbation time and the advection flow velocity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification